Melissa Clark's Rainy Day Blueberry Muffins

We had another rainy morning last weekend – I could see my pre-schooler getting restless and squirmy at the prospect of no outing to Underhill Playground. I had to take action quick, before she went into a full-blown terrible-two tantrum. It was Rainy Day Blueberry Muffins to the rescue.

I'd tried distracting the child with muffins before, to great success. The secret is to make a recipe with as little sweetener as possible - it's no good avoiding a tantrum if you're only going to replace it with a sugar-high Dahlia bouncing off the walls.

To that end I decided to adapt a recipe from Amanda Hesser's fantastically thorough tome The Essential New York Times Cookbook (I've had this book for a while, but just started cooking from it – it is just wonderful). I reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup (and omitted the sugar sprinkled on top) and subbed in 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose, to give the muffins a whole grain boost. I also used self-rising flour, rather than the remaining cup of all-purpose and baking powder because it was all I had in the pantry.

It ended up being the perfect recipe for us to make together. Amanda calls for a half cup of blueberries to be crushed before they go in the batter. I let Dahlia handle that part while I did, well, everything else.

The only truly hard part was letting the muffins cool in the pan for 30 minutes before turning them out. Dahlia and I lasted about 10 minutes – then we both pulled the tops off a couple muffins. It was a rainy day – but the sun was shining in our kitchen!

Rainy Day Blueberry Muffins

(adapted from Amanda Hesser’s The Essential New York Times Cookbook)

Makes 24 mini muffins

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 cups blueberries, rinsed and picked over

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Lightly grease 24 mini muffin cups.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the self-rising flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk, beating until just smooth. Be careful not to overmix.

3. Using a fork, crush 1/2 cup of the blueberries and stir them into the batter. Fold in the remaining 1 1/2 cups of blueberries.

4. Fill the muffin cups with the batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer the tray to a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes before removing from the pan.